Mausey
12th December 2004, 05:10 PM
And here we have the next member of the Pern dragon family, again taken from the old KTBB froma post by Catalina.
With respect to Anne and Jody Lynn, I'm just going to go ahead and quote the entire sections on whers and tunnel snakes, since those are really the only canonical references worth reading anywhere in the series. Basic descriptions are given in the books, but nothing terribly in-depth; the DLG's information is nice and condensed, but informative.
On whers:
"In an effort to produce more dragons after her grandmother's death, Wind Blossom Ping also attempted to use the Eridani equations on dragonet genetic material. However, she did not have the same grasp of genetics as Kitti Ping, and the results of her tinkering were not totally successful.
"What hatched from the eggs she engineered looked like ugly, malformed dragons, and were dubbed 'whers'. Their wings were stumpy pinions that looked functional but were not. They were smooth-skinned and colored like dragons, but that was almost the only point of resemblance.
"When full-grown, whers weighed between six and eight hundred pounds, about the size of a small, low-slung horse. Their feet were arranged with two claws, and a single pad supported the body weight; in spite of such bad design, they could move with surprising speed.
"Whers were Impressable, and they adored their human mates with the same devotion and empathy as dragons did. They were also very territorial and, if not properly introduced, would kill anyone they believed was invading their home. As a result of Wind Blossom's attempt to smooth out the natural faceting of the eyes, their eyes had mal-formed lenses with countless little facets that aimed light directly back into the fovea like a magnifying glass. Whers were photophobic and had poor focal length, but they were effective guardians at night, able to see even in total darkness. Their senses of smell and hearing were as keen as their night vision. They were not as intelligent as dragons, but they could serve a purpose. And they bred true.
"Whers are solitary and antisocial. If a female hatches away from a human habitation, the young return to the wild. They avoid encounters during the day, but they will kill if disturbed at night. Only a few eggs of each laying mature to hatch" (DLG, 42-43).
As for tunnelsnakes:
"Snakes with turtlelike faces existed in the jungles. Most of these were poisonous and left track marks from the toe teeth along their length on those creatures unlucky enough to be caught in their coils. Similar snakes that grew up to elephantine size lived in the rivers and seas .
"The so-called tunnel snakes, which actually had legs, were the most numerous pests, appearing in caves and stony outcroppings. There were numerous varieties of the six-limbed beast. Most averaged two to four feet in length. Some had scales; some had skin. One type had very long legs, but most of them had short, stubby limbs for creeping low against the ground. Many varieties of tunnel snakes had sharp, powerful front claws for gripping and rending. The rear legs pushed the tunnel snakes' skinny bodies through the smallest openings in the rock. The middle pair of limbs served as stabilizers in land-bound varieties and as pseudoflippers with vestigial claws in those species that were water dwellers.
"Most tunnel snakes had hearing organs in their chests, close to the ground, but there existed one variety of deep-tunnel beast that had no less than six ear-spots, to make up for the fact that it was nearly blind.
"The water-dwelling tunnel snake's bite was venomous and could be dangerous if not treated promptly. The flesh of a victim would swell up painfully. All tunnel snakes had the ungulate jaw that allowed them to ingest small creatures whole. They could go for long periods without feeding, which helped them survive during Threadfall. Some hibernated during the cold seasons when prey was scarce" (DLG 12).
I should note that all indigenous Pern animals have six limbs or more (dragonets/firelizards, wherries, crawlers, tunnelsnakes, etc.), and "all noninsectoid fauna on Pern was warm-blooded and based on a boron-silicon system, rather than the iron-calcium bond of earth animals" (12).
Firelizards (and, I would assume, whers and dragons) have an average body temperature of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Farenheight; the average body temperature for a human being is 98.6 degrees Farenheight/37 degrees Celsius) -- why they do all that sun-basking, I don't know, since they don't need external heat to maintain their body temperatures (a trait of cold-blooded animals). I suppose it just feels good.
With respect to Anne and Jody Lynn, I'm just going to go ahead and quote the entire sections on whers and tunnel snakes, since those are really the only canonical references worth reading anywhere in the series. Basic descriptions are given in the books, but nothing terribly in-depth; the DLG's information is nice and condensed, but informative.
On whers:
"In an effort to produce more dragons after her grandmother's death, Wind Blossom Ping also attempted to use the Eridani equations on dragonet genetic material. However, she did not have the same grasp of genetics as Kitti Ping, and the results of her tinkering were not totally successful.
"What hatched from the eggs she engineered looked like ugly, malformed dragons, and were dubbed 'whers'. Their wings were stumpy pinions that looked functional but were not. They were smooth-skinned and colored like dragons, but that was almost the only point of resemblance.
"When full-grown, whers weighed between six and eight hundred pounds, about the size of a small, low-slung horse. Their feet were arranged with two claws, and a single pad supported the body weight; in spite of such bad design, they could move with surprising speed.
"Whers were Impressable, and they adored their human mates with the same devotion and empathy as dragons did. They were also very territorial and, if not properly introduced, would kill anyone they believed was invading their home. As a result of Wind Blossom's attempt to smooth out the natural faceting of the eyes, their eyes had mal-formed lenses with countless little facets that aimed light directly back into the fovea like a magnifying glass. Whers were photophobic and had poor focal length, but they were effective guardians at night, able to see even in total darkness. Their senses of smell and hearing were as keen as their night vision. They were not as intelligent as dragons, but they could serve a purpose. And they bred true.
"Whers are solitary and antisocial. If a female hatches away from a human habitation, the young return to the wild. They avoid encounters during the day, but they will kill if disturbed at night. Only a few eggs of each laying mature to hatch" (DLG, 42-43).
As for tunnelsnakes:
"Snakes with turtlelike faces existed in the jungles. Most of these were poisonous and left track marks from the toe teeth along their length on those creatures unlucky enough to be caught in their coils. Similar snakes that grew up to elephantine size lived in the rivers and seas .
"The so-called tunnel snakes, which actually had legs, were the most numerous pests, appearing in caves and stony outcroppings. There were numerous varieties of the six-limbed beast. Most averaged two to four feet in length. Some had scales; some had skin. One type had very long legs, but most of them had short, stubby limbs for creeping low against the ground. Many varieties of tunnel snakes had sharp, powerful front claws for gripping and rending. The rear legs pushed the tunnel snakes' skinny bodies through the smallest openings in the rock. The middle pair of limbs served as stabilizers in land-bound varieties and as pseudoflippers with vestigial claws in those species that were water dwellers.
"Most tunnel snakes had hearing organs in their chests, close to the ground, but there existed one variety of deep-tunnel beast that had no less than six ear-spots, to make up for the fact that it was nearly blind.
"The water-dwelling tunnel snake's bite was venomous and could be dangerous if not treated promptly. The flesh of a victim would swell up painfully. All tunnel snakes had the ungulate jaw that allowed them to ingest small creatures whole. They could go for long periods without feeding, which helped them survive during Threadfall. Some hibernated during the cold seasons when prey was scarce" (DLG 12).
I should note that all indigenous Pern animals have six limbs or more (dragonets/firelizards, wherries, crawlers, tunnelsnakes, etc.), and "all noninsectoid fauna on Pern was warm-blooded and based on a boron-silicon system, rather than the iron-calcium bond of earth animals" (12).
Firelizards (and, I would assume, whers and dragons) have an average body temperature of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Farenheight; the average body temperature for a human being is 98.6 degrees Farenheight/37 degrees Celsius) -- why they do all that sun-basking, I don't know, since they don't need external heat to maintain their body temperatures (a trait of cold-blooded animals). I suppose it just feels good.